The Speculations of Toph Beifong
by HorseGirl784
Summary: The world would never be anything to her besides endless darkness, but she didn't mind. Toph didn't need color to paint or faces to be fooled by. The thing with blindness - looks never matter. It's always what's on the inside that she sees. Toph/Haru. A series of one-shots. -Cover by kelly1412 on deviantART.
1. Speculations

**I have not watched A:tLA in _forever_, so forgive any warps in the facts, please. This is just my own little theory on who Lin's father was. And no, it's not some random guy. **

**disclaimer: I no own, you no sue. Bryke has it all. **

* * *

Toph really hates mornings.

Everything about them, really: the way-too-happy sunshine that is way-too-bright, the grogginess that never fades until at least noon. And, of course, the morning sickness. It's the worst, and the twenty-four year old blind metal/earth bender hates having to taste her dinner a second time. Katara told her that after the first few weeks, the nausea and stuff goes away and then your back starts hurting and your ankles start swelling. And sweetness would know, too - she's already got two of the tiny noise-makers and another on the way.

Pregnancy is _so _not all it's cracked up to be.

Toph groans and flushes her toilet after getting up off her knees. What the hell was she thinking, letting him propose to her, marry her, get her frickin' pregnant. She wasn't "wife and mother" material at all, even disreguarding the fact that she was Chief of Police in Rebublic City. Sokka had laughed outright when they had told him and Suki the news. Granted, Snoozles's wife had been a bit more tactful with her surprise, but just because Toph was blind didn't mean she couldn't see.

"I ought to make you sleep on a slab of rock," Toph snarks to the toilet as she wipes her mouth. "And I don't make empty threats, Mustachio."

"As I very well know," her husband says as he helps her stand. Toph shakes off his fussy hands, grumbling something about flattening him with aforementioned slab of rock. "And would it kill you to say my actual name?"

"I might just kill _you _if you don't quit backtalking me."

His quiet, patient chuckle soothes her nerves just a fraction. "No you won't. You love me."

"Says you."

"Says me _and_ you," he chirps, and she feels his hand on her left one, fingering the golden band there, before she senses the vibrations under her bare soles as he pads away. "You're just too shy to say it."

"Mmhm. Fix me food, man-slave. I'm starved."

He sighs, and she has to laugh as she follows him to their kitchen. Being pals with Twinkle-toes has its benefits, she muses. They live in the wealthier parts of Rebublic City; both as an added bonus for saving the world from an insane Fire Lord, and for her contribution to the city.

She had never imagined herself ending up where she is now. Married, living in a nice house, and carrying a child. A job that gives her a sense of purpose, something her broken childhood had snatched from her with cruel, daggered claws. All her friends - excluding Aang and Sugar Queen, who had their own private island (chumps) - within walking distance.

"Eggs or sea prunes?" The voice floats to her somewhere down the hall, and Toph hurries forward.

She wrinkles her nose. "Do you really even have to ask?"

"Ostrich-horse eggs it is, then."

The metalbender sprawls on the floor cushions surrounding their low-set table. "What time is it?"

"Um, about seven thirty."

Toph blows her black bangs away from her face; they're tickling her nose. "I have a meeting at nine with the council. Something about a raging bloodbender. Isn't that impossible without a full moon?"

"Supposed to be..." His voice is distant, but she leaves him be. He'll say it when he wants to.

It doesn't take long. "What do you think it'll be?"

"Huh?"

"The baby. Do you think it's a boy or a girl?"

Toph laughes as she sits up, and she feels him walking towards her. The delicious smell of fried eggs makes her stomach growl. "A little early for that, don't you think? I'm... what? A little over a month along?"

"It's fun to think about, don't you think?"

She shovels the food into her mouth, pointedly ignoring his snicker at her manners. "Dunno. Haven't really."

"Just answer the question. I call boy."

Toph grins, swallows loudly, and pats her midsection. "Nope. I call girl, Mustachio. Mother's intuition and all that crap. She's gonna be the best kick-ass earthbender ever. She'll get it from both sides."

She can almost here him rolling his eyes, but his hand lands on her thigh. "Whatever you say, Toph."

"'Cause I'm always right, Haru."

* * *

**It's actually a pretty cute pairing, if you think about it.**

**Anyway, I'll explain my reasoning: Haru and Toph do know each other. I distinctly recall a part of the season, with the upside-down temples or something, with Haru (with his mustache) and that guy in the wheelchair showing up (can't remember his name). Both of them being earthbenders, they probably fought together at one point, as well (can't remember, again). Lastly, Haru always struck me as someone unswervingly loyal and patient, which would be what Toph would need to keep her balanced. **

**Just because we don't see him in LoK doesn't mean he's not there. We don't see Katara in any flashbacks, but clearly, her and Aang were together. Haru was a signifigant character, with I think two episodes dedicated to him. Or maybe it was one... I really need to watch the series again *facepalm***

**Reviews appreciated!**


	2. Taking Shape

**A/N - After writing the first chapter, I fell totally in love with this pairing. And to boot, I watched a little of A:tLA today, and it just so happened to feature Haru. So, I have decided to turn this into a series of one shots and change the title. They are not in chronological order and they more than likely will not have anything to do with each other. Genres will range. **

**_Summary: _**_Toph is haunted by the feeling of uselessness now that the war is over. Feeling helpless and angry, she turns to wondering what the world looks like, and an old friend stops by to help her along.  
**Genres: **Friendship, Hurt/Comfort, a little Angst, and Romance, if you squint._

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Taking Shape

It was a few years after Fire Lord Zuko's coronation that it happened.

Toph was sixteen, and after refusing to be sent home to her sheltered, humiliating life in the Earth Kingdom, Zuko had given her a place to stay in his palace. At the time, it was the center of all the hustle and bustle—plans for a new city, ideas for peace, schemes for healing all the damage the Phoenix King had caused—and most of her friends were hanging around anyway: Sparky and his gloomy girl, obviously, and both now twenty. Twinkle-toes didn't _live _there, per se, but he may as well have, and wherever he went, Katara was sure to follow. The kid Avatar was barely of age at sixteen and Sugar Queen was two years his senior. The only ones who didn't come around often were Sokka and Suki, but Toph supposed she could forgive them. After all, Hakoda needed his son to learn how to effectively run the Southern Water Tribe. What she wouldn't give to see that train wreck.

That particular day had started out as crappy as they come. A new servant girl had been hired to work in the Fire Nation palace, and had not been informed of Toph's handicap. Thus, when the squeaky creature had noticed the thin film covering the earthbender's eyes and the vacant look there, she had fallen to the floor and muttered a thousand apologies for things that did not need them.

It never failed to humiliate her.

After kicking the girl out with about as much tact as a pissed Zuko, Toph had locked her door, not in the mood for company, and was presently laying down on her plush bed that was probably far too big for her. Her blindness was something she rarely ever gave thought to, and when she did, it was to joke about. She knew of nothing different and so could not wish for something she had never seen. But that day, for no reason that she could understand, the frightened voice of the girl was all she could hear.

It reeked of pity.

The word made her shudder and want to crawl under a rock and die from humiliation. With pity came judgment and Toph could never seem to escape that fact. How dare she be so weak? What had her parents done to deserve such a disgraceful child? The Beifong name was ruined, and it was all her fault, yet it was not within her power to change. And oh, how she wanted to on days like this.

For the first time in a long time, Toph wished she could see something. Anything. She gripped the silk sheets in a tight fist, not caring when she wrinkled the expensive fabric. What color were they? Red? Orange? She didn't even know what such hues looked like. What other people instinctually pictured upon the words she could not comprehend; people couldn't describe colors to her. How bright was the sun? Was it huge and covered half the sky? What about her? What did she herself look like? Was she short or tall? Fat or thin? Beautiful or ugly?

Toph sighed and reached up to feel her face. Her fingers skimmed over her nose—it was sloped and slightly up-turned—and across her lips—thin and chapped, but she didn't care. Her whole face felt kind of flat, but she supposed it was genetics. Her thin fingers reached up to her unbound hair, falling to the small of her back without her usual bun, and stroked through it, wondering what color it was. She had never asked anyone—to do so was to admit weakness, that being blind bothered her in some kind of way. She couldn't say she preferred any color; she wasn't sure what brown hair looked like, or black or blonde or red.

A knock came at her door, and she ignored it. She wasn't in the mood to talk yet, and not hungry enough to wander around until she found the kitchens. She'd just come out when Sparky stormed up to haul her down to the meeting room to discuss plans for his and Aang's new city.

Another knock, this one more persistent. Still, she remained silent and shot a venomous look in the general direction of the noise. Why were all maids so _pushy_?

Someone hammered their fist against the door and Toph shot up. "_What _do you _want?_" she spat loudly. "Am I not allowed to be lazy for just _one morning,_ Sparky?"

A quiet chuckle floated through the wood, and the earthbender went still for a fraction of a second before throwing her feet off the edge of her bed and stomping onto the floor. Immediately, she could sense a tall figure outside her door, and feel the pull of the earth tugging on them as well. She grinned as the figure said, "It's not the Fire Lord, Lotus*."

"Then who is it?" She bit her tongue to keep from laughing as she felt the person shift their stance. A moment later, a fist-sized rock flew through the handle of her door and skittered to a stop right beside her feet. She bent to pick it up as the door swung open. "Who do you think?"

Toph chuckled and tossed his rock back to him. "Zuko's not gonna like you breaking his house, Mustachio. What are you doing here, Haru? I thought your mom needed help in the Earth Kingdom. Isn't she really old?"

She felt his heart stutter for a moment and immediately knew she had said the wrong thing. "…She died, Toph. About two months ago."

"Oh," she mumbled, unable to think of anything else to say. "I didn't know."

Haru sighed. "Yeah, I know." She felt him move, and then he disappeared from her senses; he must be on her bed. "There wasn't much left for me back home, with Dad being gone too and all, so I decided to pay a visit to the old crew." There was a pause, and Toph felt as if he forced the next words to sound cheerful. "So how have you been? I haven't seen you since the coronation."

"Busy. Lonely, kinda, and still blind." She forced a laugh. "Can you put your feet back on the floor? I don't know where you are."

A few seconds later, he appeared again in her mind's eye. "Thanks." He was on the bed. "You can pick them back up again. But anyway, Twinkle-toes and Sifu Hotman have been working on these plans for an 'epic new city', and they want my input." She flopped down beside him, sprawling spread-eagled out on the mattress. "It's so boring, but they said once its built and all, they'll give me a place of my own and a job. They want to open a metalbending school, too."

"Sounds exciting," Haru said flatly, and Toph guffawed. "You haven't had any adventures or anything awesome like that?"

"Does recon work count?"

"No."

"Then no."

There was a heavy silence for a moment, and Toph reached out to feel for him, to make sure he was still there. Her hand brushed against what she guessed to be his elbow, and she felt his heart rate spike. She smirked. "So how have you been, Toph?"

She frowned. "You just asked that."

"And you didn't answer me." Before she could protest, he slid out from under her light touch and pulled her up to sit beside him. "You talked about the Avatar and Fire Lord Zuko, but not you." Another silence followed, and she could feel the weight of his gaze as he searched her face. "Are you alright?"

And she snapped.

Toph bolted off the bed, slamming her feet onto the ground and bending her knees and wrists. The door slammed shut with a boom, shoved closed by the metal hinges, but she didn't care. "What is _with _everyone today?" she snarled. "Apologizing to me for nothing, prying into my feelings? Do I seem like the type to talk about feelings?"

"Toph—"

"Does my blindness automatically mean I have some… some psychological problem or depression or something? 'Cause I don't!"

"_Toph_—"

"I'm perfectly fine and always will be! I don't need to see. I don't feel deprived of colors and sunshine! I'm the most powerful earthbender alive! And I invented metalbending! I don't need my sight!"

"_Toph!_" She finally stopped her tirade, fists clenched so tight her knuckles were throbbing. Something slid down her face. "You're crying."

"What?" Her hands flew to her cheeks, and sure enough, they were wet and slick and tight from saltwater. She laughed bitterly and threw her hands in the air. "Great. Just frickin' _awesome_. I can't even tell when I'm crying." Toph plunked down on the stone floor, ignoring the zing in her rear end when she collided. "How pathetic."

Haru was silent for a very long time. Instead, he got up from his seat on her bed and padded softly over to sit beside her. She jerked away when their knees brushed. "You're not pathetic, Toph."

"Not physically," she said, the words coming out before she even realized she had thought them. "I mean," she searched for the right words. "I'm proud of my earthbending and knocking heads skills. I wouldn't trade them for the world. But…" she sighed, and Haru shifted. "Sometimes I feel like all I am to the world is a figurehead. Someone to place on a pedestal and admire, but never give any attention to." Toph drew her knees to her chest. "People act like I'm not even a real person. Like… without my sight, everything successful I do is automatically ten times more awesome than if Katara did it, or you."

"That's because it is," Haru said, and steamrolled on before she could snap at him. "They don't mean to, Toph. They're just impressed because you've become so adept at what you love. Being blind has never been an obstacle for you, and they can't understand that; they try to imagine a world without color, without the faces of those they care about. They can't do it, and to see you strut around and toss monstrous boulders with flawless aim is unfathomable."

"But that doesn't mean I'm not human!" She protested. "I have feelings too!"

Haru chuckled. "I thought you didn't like to talk about your feelings?"

"Yeah, well, I don't," she spluttered. "You just caught me at a bad time. I'm feeling extra whiney today."

Haru scooted closer so he could place his hand on her knee. Toph tried not to flush and slap it away. "You're not being whiney, Toph. I get what you're saying, and it's totally natural. I mean…" he seemed to be picking his words with great care. Toph looked up to where she thought his face was. "I would be insulted, too, if I were you."

It was quiet again for a minute or two while Toph thought. When she had come to her conclusion, she burst, "Tell what you look like."

Haru started. "What?"

"I-I mean," she hastily searched for what she had been planning to say. "I've never asked anyone before. I thought… I thought that if I did, they'd think I was desperate or depressed 'cause of my blindness. But I'm not," she hastened to add. "But I really want to know what everyone looks like. Tell me."

"You know I have a mustache," he said suspiciously.

Toph had to laugh. "Sokka told me about it. Apparently, you didn't have one last time you guys met."

"No, I didn't," Haru allowed. He shifted again, his hand dropping off her knee to land beside her leg. Toph uncurled and stretched her bare feet out in front of her. "Alright. Who do you want to know about first?"

"Me," she blurted.

Haru's heart fluttered for a second. Toph bit her tongue to keep from teasing him. "Well," he said. "You have long black hair, and you're pretty short for a girl your age."

"What does black look like?"

"What do you see right now?"

"Nothing," she deadpanned. Haru sighed.

"I mean, is it light or dark or somewhere in between?"

"It's dark. Really dark, like… endless dark."

"That's black," Haru said, and Toph hummed in thought. "What color are my eyes?"

"Hmm." He leaned forward, and she could feel his breath on her face. Her cheeks suddenly felt a thousand degrees hotter. "I bet if you weren't blind, they would be green. They're very pale, and kind of filmy, but not grey."

She knew she shouldn't have asked. Toph sighed. "I don't know what any of those colors are. What does 'filmy' look like?" It sounded kind of gross.

"It means… huh. The best way I can put it is like if something was covering them, but not all the way. Like, the veil there is kind of see-through, blurring the image."

"Huh." She pondered this for a moment. Then she grinned devilishly. "Am I pretty?"

Bingo. His heart started hammering. "Uh," he squirmed next to her, and Toph snorted. "That depends on who you ask."

"Do you think I'm pretty?"

"…There is no right way to answer that question."

"Of course there is!" Toph gasped, feigning offence. "What girl wants to be told they're ugly? C'mon Haru, I've always wanted to know."

He sighed. "You'll be able to tell if I lie anyway." The words were mumbled and she suspected she wasn't supposed to hear them. "But… yeah. I guess so."

"You 'guess so'?" This was way too fun. "You can do better than that."

"Whatever, Toph," and she laughed. He had snapped, but she knew he was only embarrassed. His heart was racing a mile a minute. "Do you wanna know about anyone else, or are you gonna keep messing with me?"

"No, I still want to know. But I'm not done with you yet."

Haru gave a long suffering sigh. "Who else?"

"Everyone. You, Twinkle-toes, sweetness, Snoozles, Sparky."

And so they spent the rest of the afternoon sprawled on her bedroom floor, poking fun and laughing with the occasional flirt from Toph. Haru described everyone and everything to her with as much detail as he could, which wasn't much, but Toph couldn't complain. The world was taking shape for her, for the first time in sixteen years.

* * *

***Toph means 'lotus' in Japanese. Or something like that.**


End file.
